Good morning. In this age of the customer, where digital drives engagement, IT teams that can bring a diversity of thought and experience to their initiatives have the advantage in creating digital experiences that boost revenue. As more studies bring this point home, companies are expanding efforts to hire more women and more minorities—groups underrepresented in technology in the U.S. Results are mixed (see below for recent numbers on women CIOs), but as The Wall Street Journal’s John Simons reports, at least one company, cosmetics retailer Sephora, has managed a hiring feat that would make human resource departments of many firms envious. Women at Sephora make up the majority—62%—of its 350-person digital and engineering staff and hold all but one of the roles on its six-person digital executive leadership team.

How does Sephora do it? Where other companies hiring for tech may look at specific tech skills, like coding, over all else, managers at Sephora tell Mr. Simons that they recruit “with an eye toward candidates’ potential.” Hiring managers are encouraged to take risks: The key to Sephora’s success, says Mary Beth Laughton, the company’s senior vice president of digital, is a dedication to technology with a strong connection to the consumer. And, women at the company are encouraged to take risks without fear of failure, she adds.

Lessons for all? The focus on the customer may explain why Sephora was able to open 100 stores in 2016 and record double-digit profit growth. The cosmetics firm’s success is making it easier to attract even more talented women. The lessons shouldn’t be lost on other companies. A common theme at last week’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla., was how diversity (of thought, of background, of skills) among IT will determine success in the digital age.

Between 2013 and 2017 the small community of women CIOs in the Fortune 500 increased by one percentage point.

Korn/Ferry

The more things change… The percentage of women CIOs in the Fortune 500 ticked upward just one percentage point between 2013 and 2017, an indication that today’s talent pipelines remain inadequate for promoting women to leadership roles, according to Korn Ferry. But the executive search firm found some slightly better news. Between 2016 and 2017 there was a 5% increase in the number of internal promotions, a sign that companies are looking more to developing in house female talent. Also rising: the percentage of what Korn Ferry calls ethnically-diverse women CIOs, from 4% of women Fortune 500 CIOs in 2013 to 20% in 2017.

Paul Otellini’s vision was broader than tech. Paul Otellini led Intel Corp. as chief executive but also as an influential manager at thinker and the semiconductor company for 40 years. Mr. Otellini, who died last week at age 66, was the only Intel CEO not trained as an engineer. Mr. Otellini joined Intel fresh out of business school in 1974, a few years after the company began marketing its first microprocessor. His strength lay in his informal manner and methodical approach to assessing problems. As he told the Journal on the eve of becoming CEO in 2005, “What you have to do is weigh options, weigh risks, and go on.”

Mr. Otellini’s ability to envision how to use technology in a larger context or in a new way pushed Intel forward and more companies will demand similar skills, Cathy Bessant, Bank of America Corp.’s chief operations and technology manager, tells CIO Journal’s Kim S. Nash in a recent interview. Mr. Otellini exemplified this approach, she said. “He wasn’t a technologist. He started at the lowest level of Intel and, on the job, built his knowledge.”

Ms. Bessant prides herself on a cross-discipline professional experience that has taken her in the last several years from running global corporate banking at Bank of America, to running the bank’s marketing group, and since, 2010, running technology. She’s been at Bank of America, one of the largest companies in the world, since 1982.

“The skillsets of the future are creative, problem-solving skillsets. They’re not, did you come up through the finance organization and know how to spread a financial statement,” she said. “I see increasingly that no matter what the discipline is, problem-solving and great management skills are what’s needed.”

More chief executives look to digital for growth. As digital tools and capabilities sweep through industries, chief information officers and other senior IT managers are finding a new and eager partner in business technology – chief executive officers, according to Gartner Inc. researcher Mark Raskino. The problem, Mr. Raskino said, is that many CEOs have no metric for digital progress, reports CIO Journal’s Angus Loten. Leaders today are looking to digital capabilities to drive revenue growth and generate profits, he said. “For a generation of CEOs, digital business is going to be a career defining issue for them,” he added. CIOs instead need to help business leaders define what “digital” means for a given company, he said, adding that a clearer definition allows companies to gauge success of a digital business initiative.

SECURITY

Danny Moloshok/Associated Press

Google finds Russian-bought ads on Gmail, YouTube and other services. Google says it has found evidence that Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, the Journal’s Jack Nicas reports. The discovery comes after Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. reported incidents of Russian elements exploiting advertising and bots to spread disinformation and division. People familiar with the matter said that the ads did not show a clear bent toward one candidate or another.

Dollar value? Accounts linked to the Russian government bought $4,700 worth of ads, while accounts with other Russian links spent $53,000 on ads, one of the people said.

How discovered? Google identified some of the ad buys by comparing its customers with Russian-linked accounts on Twitter, via data it downloaded from Twitter, this person said.

What now? Google has turned over some of the ads to congressional investigators, the people said. “We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems,” the company said in a statement. Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ reports that it interfered in the election.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

Japan’s launch of the Michibiki 4 puts the country a step closer to having the most precise geo-positioning system in the world. The technology, scheduled to go online in April, could have strategic significance in the event of military conflict with North Korea, as well as huge commercial potential.

Reuters

Japan expected to lead in building super-precise global-positioning satellites. On Tuesday, Japan launched the fourth global-positioning satellite in a system “that will provide accuracy down to a few centimeters, compared with a few meters for GPS,” the Journal’s Alastair Gale and Chieko Tsuneoka report. The system is expected to go into operation in April, working in coordination with the U.S. military-controlled GPS system for a few years. It will have applications in self-driving cars, logistics and the military.

The expansion of GPS. A European system was launched last year and India and China are expected to launch their versions in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Japan’s will provide the most precise location data of all, fixing a problem of existing signals being blocked by tall buildings, the Journal says.

Lane control. “One of the most significant benefits may be in the development of self-driving cars,” the Journal says. Japan is also studying military uses “as the nation eases restrictions on its armed forces in the face of growing challenges from North Korea and China,” the Journal says. The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System could provide guidance systems for missiles, should Japan purchase them. President Trump has “welcomed” moves toward Japan’s greater military independence, the Journal reports.

Coastal elite. Space Exploration Technologies blasted 10 commercial satellites into orbit from central California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, completing the first of a pair of consecutive launches slated from opposite coasts in roughly two days, the Journal’s Andy Pasztor reports. SpaceX plans to put up a commercial satellite on another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center as early as Wednesday afternoon.

MANAGEMENT

Liane Hornsey, Uber’s human-resources chief, says the company is breaking down its entire hiring process to eliminate bias.

JAMIE TANAKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Uber HR chief tries to reform company culture. Liane Hornsey, a former Google and SoftBank executive, joined Uber Technologies Inc. in January just before an explosive blog post from a former engineer accused the company of being tolerant of sexism and chauvinism. In an interview with the Journal, Ms. Hornsay discusses how she and colleagues are implementing 47 recommendations from an internal investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder. Among them: Blind résumé review, establishment of a diversity board, creating a clear alcohol policy, and moving the company’s dinner earlier in the evening to signal the work day is done. The company is working to interview more women for engineering positions. “It’s going to be bloody hard,” she said.

MORE TECHNOLOGY NEWS

MAURITZ ANTIN/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Honeywell to spin off units into two stand-alone companies.Honeywell International Inc. plans to spin off its home and transportation units into new separate companies, a first effort to streamline the conglomerate under new CEO Darius Adamczyk, the Journal’s Thomas Gryta reports. “The remaining Honeywell portfolio will consist of high-growth businesses in six attractive industrial markets” each tied to so-called megatrends, he said. They include energy efficiency, infrastructure investment, urbanization and safety.

Wal-Mart descends on the Ivies. Ivy-league students are hearing job pitches from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. more frequently as the retailer seeks to overhaul its recruiting strategy, Bloomberg reports. Wal-Mart wants to grow its e-commerce business and be considered a technology company. “Wal-Mart overhauled its campus recruiting program this year to lure more applicants from top-flight colleges: students who typically juggle offers from Google and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Historically, Wal-Mart found most of its entry-level executives at state schools within a day’s drive from its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.,” Bloomberg writes.

YouTube bans some gun-modification tutorials. Following the Las Vegas massacre, YouTube will ban some videos that explain how to modify guns, Gizmodo reports. Plenty of tutorials are still available at the moment, and some have “hundreds of thousands of views,” Gizmodo says.

Ford explores ‘microtransit’ services. Piggybacking off a software platform developed by Silicon Valley partner Autonomic Inc., Ford Motor Co. is rolling out new transportation services, Reuters reports. This summer Ford and a Michigan hospital launched one such where patients can schedule pickups and appointment via a mobile app, Reuters says.

GM buys lidar company. General Motors Co. Monday announced it was buying Strobe, maker of sensors that enable autonomous cars to “see” and navigate through environments, the New York Times reports.

EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Environmental Protection Agency is set to withdraw power plant rules under the Clean Power Plan enacted during the Obama administration to limit greenhouse gas emissions. (WSJ)

The Morning Download is edited by Steven Rosenbush and Kim S. Nash and cues up the most important news in business technology every weekday morning. Send us your tips, compliments and complaints. You can get The Morning Download emailed to you each weekday morning by clicking http://wsj.com/TheMorningDownload.